Dean Juha Kontio involved in developing technology education at the top of the world
Dean Juha Kontio from TUAS' faculty of Business, ICT and Chemical Engineering has been appointed to globally develop technology education. He was appointed as a Council member of the international CDIO network last week in China. In short, the Council is driven by the idea of developing technology education to better meet the needs of working life.
The CDIO Initiative is an organisation of 126 HEIs with a common aim to develop engineering education. The global network is organised in regions: Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and Africa. Each region is run by one or several regional leaders.
Turku University of Applied Sciences has been a member of CDIO since 2007, and Dean Juha Kontio has been one of the European regional leaders since January 2013.
The entire network is run by two Co-directors and a Council which is composed of representatives appointed from the HEIs in the network. The Council members also include six elected Members-at-Large from the participating HEIs. The election is organised each summer in connection with the CDIO conference.
Kontio the only new European in the newly appointed CDIO Council
This year the CDIO conference was organised in Chengdu, China. During the conference, three new members were elected to the Council. In the election, the member HEIs got to vote three candidates of their choosing.
Based on the vote, Dean Juha Kontio from the faculty of Business, ICT and Chemical Engineering was appointed as the only new European member to the CDIO Council. The other new members were from China and Canada. A term in the Council lasts three years. Juha Kontio is glad of the trust he received and believes that his visible activities in the network for several years helped the appointment.
The task of the Council is to decide on accepting new member HEIs in the network and on the locations where upcoming conferences and other meetings of the network will be organised. In addition, the Council’s central task is to develop the CDIO approach and strengthen the network’s activities. The Council is driven by the idea of developing technology education to better meet the needs of working life.
For Turku University of Applied Sciences, representation in the CDIO Council provides the opportunity to be involved in steering the development of technology education in over 120 HEIs worldwide. Moreover, the Council work produces ideas for the promotion of one of TUAS’ spearheads – a Technical Innovation University of the Future. The CDIO approach is at the core of the Technical Innovation University of the Future along with innovation pedagogy.
